Foreword: Three weeks ago, we posted a survey on all of our social media spaces asking what other professionals felt were their biggest time wasters. The response was huge, and TONS of people responded that Email was the #1 time suck out there. I wanted to share the entire PR to let you all draw your own conclusions around this – and hopefully come up with some keen solutions. If you’d like to share your OWN solutions here, by commenting on the blog, we’ll be happy to put them all into a follow-up piece and share it next week! Here’s to your great weekend! ~ Stephen Dodd
OfficeTime.net, creator of the popular OfficeTime time and expense tracking software for Windows and Mac computers and iOS devices, recently conducted a survey of working professionals on their Biggest Time Killers. 53% of respondents were business owners, freelancers or executives, while 39% work in professional “white collar” positions.
Survey participants were asked to name their top-three time killers. Of all the ways people manage to squander their time each day, “Email” was named as this year’s biggest time killer by 47% of respondents.
Other Top 5 Time Killers included Procrastination (42%), Social Networking (36%), Meetings (34%), and Surfing the Internet (30%). Rounding out the Top 10 were non business-related conversations (24%), dealing with computer / technical issues (23%), “bureaucracy / red tape” (19%), travel time / commuting (14%), and playing computer games (10%).
“Time management is really about decision management,” says Stephen Dodd, director of OfficeTime.net. “Some people are better able to successfully choose what they do and how much time they spend on it. Some are more apt to be distracted by time killers that get in the way of a productive work day.”
To help counteract these Top Time Killers, OfficeTime.net offers its tips for prioritizing how people spend their time each day:
Priority #1. It’s important to recognize that while some issues that arise are not known at the beginning of each day, some of the urgent issues in our lives are known right now. Each Monday, take a moment and list the hot, urgent items you know must be done this week.
Priority #2. Priority 2 items are not only business-oriented. Be sure to include time with family, time to work out, time to feed the soul and body. After those items are scheduled, add in firm deadlines for the week – and then block out time before the deadline to work on the project.
Priority #3. All the rest of it. While the inbox is never empty and all the rest must be fit in as well, by going for #1 and #2 priorities first, your own Top Time Killers will be less of a distraction, resulting in more free time and more room for “all the rest.”
Device Requirements:
* iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
* Requires iOS 4.0 or later
* 4.6 MB
Pricing and Availability:
OfficeTime – Time & Expense Tracking 1.2 is $7.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Productivity category. OfficeTime – Time & Expense Tracking 1.2 / Purchase and Download
OfficeTime was established in 2003 as a spin-off from Transcena Design ofEdmonton, Canada. OfficeTime was developed in response to Transcena’s urgent need for an easy-to-use, effective, time-tracking application. Designed and continually improved by the same developers who were relying on it every day, OfficeTime was an immediate success when released to the public. Ideal for anyone who bills by the hour, OfficeTime makes recording and tracking time and expenses simple with a clean, elegant interface. The iPhone and iPad versions focus on ease-of-use, recognizing that if time tracking is simple to do, users will be more likely to take the time to do it. For more information, visit www.officetime.net. Copyright (C) 2012 OfficeTime. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in theU.S.and/or other countries.
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Kevin Doel
TalonPR, Inc.
785-273-9660
online survey software
Interesting to know that “Email” was named as this year’s biggest time killer by 47% of respondents..